


Fishing the Skies to Catch the Wind

by FloraLeona



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Fae & Fairies, M/M, Magic, Mild Injury, Selkies, Vague historical setting, fisherman Yifan, its angsty but no one dies so, my take on the selkie/swan wife myths, selkie junmyeon, this is a mess but im feelsy so let me live
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 04:41:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12697575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloraLeona/pseuds/FloraLeona
Summary: A story as old as the hills, for which there exists no happy ending. Fate makes no exceptions for simple fishermen.





	Fishing the Skies to Catch the Wind

_Yifan was a fisherman. His chapped skin was speckled with dry white salt and his large hands were worn and cracked by the lash of the sea and the ropes of his nets. These nets, which scraped Yifan’s hands raw, were the same nets that caught, impossibly, a magical thing, an impossible dream, a selkie.  
Fishwives, in their infinite wisdom, say that you cannot catch a selkie if she does not want to be caught. Fishwives, in their infinite wisdom, should know that selkies are not only ‘she’, and that no selkie ever wants to be caught. Some, however, don’t mind staying for a while._

***

Yifan regretted how long the seal stayed in his net. He assumed the seal was just a large fish, or perhaps a sea lion, trying to steal his catch. So when Yifan checked his nets to find a remarkably large, pure white seal, he immediately began to pray it wasn’t some sign of celestial punishment approaching. It wasn’t that Yifan would’ve minded dying in a typhoon or anything, but he’d just bought some very fine clams to cook, and he didn’t have any family to will them to. The thought of those clams, ready and waiting to be cooked and eaten, kept Yifan rowing as he made his way back to shore, the white seal lying, oddly contented, on the bottom of the boat with its head on his knee.  
Yifan studiously ignored the seal right up until the moment it leapt from the boat, nearly capsizing it as Yifan rowed towards the nearing shore. Yifan cursed the seal with every pull of his oars, but the next day when he saw the seal again, he stroked its head and let it lounge on his boat while he fished, betrayal forgotten. 

***

_Nipping autumn breezes across the ocean turned to biting winds sweeping down from the north, and the water-dwelling pair became acquainted. Each day the white seal visited Yifan as he searched for ripe fishing grounds, and each market day the seal eagerly awaited his return on the shore rocks near Yifan’s ramshackle hut. This routine, however, would not last._

Yifan trudged towards his home, shooting his customary glance over at the large rocks where the white seal always waits for him. Instead of the seal, Yifan was unpleasantly surprised to find a human body, naked and blooming carmine red from his chest.  
Yifan hurried to the rocks and bundled the man in his lined rubber coat, hoisting him onto his shoulders and hauling him across the slippery rocks. Yifan’s gangly limbs threatened to spill the pair into the freezing water with every step but finally they make it to the old, rickety cottage, and Yifan places the smaller man in his old, rickety bed.  
Yifan has done his best to bandage the bite mark that marred the unconscious man’s pale shoulder. Yifan has, of course, limited medical experience, but he’s been bitten by overzealous animals before, and he’s not dead yet, so his hopes for his patient are high.  
In a while (Yifan wasn’t so good at keeping time) the man came to, and he was silent. For several days, he ate little of the food Yifan gave him (which wasn’t much to begin with) and slept constantly, but on the fifth day, the injured man spoke for the first time.  
‘Yifan. You saved me?’ The man asked, his voice hoarse and quiet from disuse. This confirmed a suspicion of Yifan’s. After all, human folk don’t have pure white hair. Yifan had initially written this discrepancy off on not being a well-educated or traveled man. Perhaps people in other parts of the world had white hair, but this strange man knew his name, and Yifan had never told him.  
‘So you’re a fae then.’ Yifan answered gruffly. It wasn’t much of an answer at all, but Yifan didn’t find it to be a particularly intelligent question in the first place. At this, the white-haired man looked conflicted, and eventually he answered honestly.  
‘Yes, I am a fae. I’ve been watching over you these past months.’ The being answered, staring at Yifan in a serious manner that was very much at odds with his image, lying in Yifan’s bed wearing comically oversized tartan pajamas.  
‘Well then I’m sure you’ve seen that I’m just fine.’ Yifan replied brusquely, before adding, ‘Though I do seem to be missing a friend, a seal in fact, and if you’ve done anything untoward to her, I’ll be quite upset.’ There was irritation, but no threat in his words. Yifan may have been a renowned curmudgeon, but he wouldn’t hurt an invalid.  
Junmyeon stared at Yifan incredulously. How could he not understand?  
‘It’s me, Yifan. I’m your seal.’

***

_The winter thawed, or at least as much as winter ever thaws in the dreary northern reaches of the world where Yifan made his home, and with the flowers bloomed an understanding that grew into love. ___

‘Take it, Yifan. Hide it from me, and hide it well.’ Junmyeon said, tears of grief in his eyes, but free of regret. He handed Yifan a bundle of snow white fur which glittered like a diamond in the sunlight.  
‘No. I can’t do that to you.’ Yifan said. He held Junmyeon’s face close to his and he tried, he tried his damnedest to make the unselfish choice.  
‘Do this. For me. I want this, I want you. Forever.’ The words were sharp in Junmyeon’s throat, and he couldn’t breathe for a moment. 

***

_Some things that are hidden are meant to be found, and Junmyeon’s beautiful white coat called to him, even from under the ground where it lay buried, it shone and sang with the magic Junmyeon discarded for Yifan. The shining turned to a blinding flare and the humming song to a deafening clamor as Junmyeon attempted to deny it, and then he couldn’t anymore. He was cocooned by the magical coat as he slipped into the water, and the tears that slid from his eyes glimmered faintly next to the brilliance of the coat._

***  
Epilogue

_Some say forever is an awfully long time. Yifan thinks everyone’s forever is different. When Junmyeon said Forever, he meant it. And he was gone by the time the spring came again. Junmyeon was Yifan’s forever, but like a gust of wind, or a ray of sunshine, a selkie cannot be kept, only held for a while. ___

**Author's Note:**

> Hey would ya look at that, it's... not the thing i said i would post. It's probably better though, my writing is better when the ideas and the imagery are crispy fresh.  
> Can I make one fic that doesn't involve blood in some way? apparently no.  
> Anywhoozies, I hope you enjoyed this lil sumthin sumthin, i'll get back on the mafia au when I have the juice.


End file.
